The early departure of Gordon Brown from office is now openly being discussed in Labour circles. Alex Hilton of LabourHome is reporting that a stalking horse candidate plans to challenge Gordon Brown. He doesn't name the MP concerned but I believe it to be Charles Clarke, whose patience has finally snapped. However, he may not need to man the barricades.
A very reputable Labour parliamentary source claims that "Gordon is hating being Prime Minister." He certainly wouldn't be the first PM to get the job only to find out that he didn't really like it. Harold Macmillan would fall into that category.
Labour MPs are increasingly coming to believe that if the European elections are terrible, Brown may well decide he's had enough and quit while he's, er, behind. I suspect this is a case of wishful thinking on their part, but who knows?
Charles Clarke's ears are very big. And they stick out. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteI've said it before so I'll say it one more time for luck: Brown won't last the year.
Now we hear he doesn't want to.
Fantastic.
Bring on Big-Ears.
Another Scottish MP making the move from closet to cabinet and back again....
ReplyDeleteHe's not hating it as much as we are!
ReplyDeleteAlex deserves a Knighthood if his campaign forces Gordon out!
ReplyDelete34,373 and counting...
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ReplyDeleteLeaving aside the fact that they are all a bunch of useless idiots, tainted by 12 years of lies and mismanagement, Charles Clarke is surely a bit more than a stalking horse...in Labour terms, I mean.
ReplyDeleteAll right, he's no Hezza but he's a bit higher up the political food chain than Meyer (a pox on the pair of them for their part in dethroning MT and giving us Major, Bliar and Gorgon).
Mr Hilton has just put up a sterling if completely delusional defence of HMG on R5.
ReplyDeleteHe was very careful to talk only about how HMG was doing a good job of 'governing' rather than the 'politics'.
Simon Mayo was on top piss-taking form when Alex said that it wasn't only bods in the Treasury 'who made up the figures'.
Car crash. Taxi for Gordon.
Harold Macmillan did not enjoy being PM!! Are you sure? Eden maybe. I would love to know your reasoning.
ReplyDeleteI hope Brown hates every second of every day of his waking life. He's caused more than enough trouble, grief and heartache for any one man.
ReplyDeleteIs it me or is 1990 happening all over again.
ReplyDeleteexcept that the PM at the time was competent in her job.
34,572 Now
I think it's still worth laying a tenner on Squirrel Nutkin.
ReplyDeleteWould a government in which a *second* prime minister has achieved the office without benefit of an election (no matter how "Anti-Brown" it may be) last all that long? Also, are there enough prominent Blairites ready to take to the front bench and then lead Labour to a thorough drubbing at the ballot box?
ReplyDelete"A very reputable Labour parliamentary source...."
ReplyDeleteYeah yeah yeah...heard it all before....are you sure that isn't just some Blairite Damian McBride making mischief? A reverse smear? I don't have any liking for Brown...but what does "very reputable" really mean any more with these idiots, whatever faction they happen to represent?
``Hating being PM``...sounds like a poorly constructed spin story. I still think he regards the job as some sort of birthright and no one is going to take it away from him....sure he`s not enjoying his present position but he is deluded enough to believe that things will get better for him in the next few months ....
ReplyDeleteI did say he was delusional..
Cherie Blair must be enjoying every minute of it..
he hates being PM and we hate him being PM - so why don't we just all agree that he should stand down and let someone else do the job.
ReplyDeleteeveryone's a winner!
Don't be fooled, this is another of his famous leaks.
ReplyDeleteHe is leaking this story to get some sympathy.
He will have to be scraped out of
No 10 on the last possible day.
The first rule of stalking horses is that they must not be big beasts. Certainly not anyone who might think themselves suitable to continue in the contest if one is in fact triggered. I could give you a shortlist of four far more likely stalking horses Iain. But I think I'll pop down the bookies and see if they're taking bets. Though obviously Brown is here for the duration. there is no vacancy and so on and so forth.
ReplyDeleteJust for information there have been mutterings about Brown on LH since way before Brown was crowned. It's not a question of "now" it is a question of "still".
If he resigned wouldn't Harman take over? If he went what would be the mechanism for choosing a new leader? Would there be time before the next election, and wouldn't a hiatus between Brown going and the election /emergence of a new leader add to the sense of drift.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, although I would dearly love to see the back of the one eyed snotgobbler I just can't see it happening.
I could be wrong but even if Brown quit - and I don't believe he will - I predict next June he will have to be dragged from number 10 by the men in white coats - the Labour mechanism for changing leader is so complex that they would probably be stuck with dear Hattie til the election. In which case you are not talking a landslide but the kind of meltdown the Canadian Conservatives suffered a few years ago.
MacMillan was a nasty patronising piece of work who had it in for the middle classes.
ReplyDeleteBrown on the other hand...hold on.
This is surely a mis-print; Gordon Brown hates being Prime Minister...
ReplyDeleteWhen did that happen? I was 100% sure he was still the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Tony just popped out to give God a few pointers... Like Mandelson he will be back... Won't he?
"Bye Bye, Ya Big Fife Pie"
ReplyDeleteThere's a petition he could sign...
ReplyDeleteI hope this doesn't serve as any encouragement to him, but I can guarantee Gordon that he's not hating his PM-ship half as much as I am.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Brown hates Brown being Prime Minister, majority of population hates Brown being Prime Minister.
ReplyDeleteWhoo-hoo! We have synchronicity!!
By any rational analysis the Labour party should seek to replace Gordon Brown as he is a disaster in political terms. He is also providing very poor leadership at a time of national crisis, and I can imagine that weighing heavily with some of the better Labour backbenchers. The key will be the June 4th elections. If they are as bad as predicted then the aftermath could start the process of removal. The question then would be what if Brown dug in behind Labour's impossibly arcane party rules that make it theoretically very difficult to remove a sitting Labour PM instead of taking one for the team.
ReplyDeleteFor the Labour supporters, my message is keep Brown as PM for a few more months so that Labour is consigned to the dustbin for a decade after a mother of all infighting and implosion. Labour will break up into into socialist and social democrat factions who will fight each other for a further decade.
ReplyDeleteOn the Politics show, Frank Field was discussing something and in reply he referred to the 'next 18 months if we last that long '
ReplyDelete"Harold Macmillan would fall into that category."
ReplyDeleteReally?! I was under the impression that Macmillan went to his grave regretting that the quacks had misdiagnosed his illness and prompted his early retirement, when he had another 40 years in him.
His (unwelcome) running commentary on the Thatcher administration certainly didn't suggest a man disillusioned with life in politics.
Stand up for Yvette Cooper. A stalking horse for Balls who will step in when the members of the coven have stopped scratching out each others eyes.
ReplyDeleteHe'll tell you in Spring next year that his remaining eye is packing up and he needs to hand over the reins.
ReplyDeleteSix months later he will head up an economics thinktank.
If this is true it's a great shame for all of us, and the next two generations, that he didn't think about it a bit more before taking the job that he "hates so much"
ReplyDeleteA certain Roger McGough poem comes to mind.
Oliver - I concur ...
ReplyDeleteif they have a third leader in the same Parliament, surely a GE would have to follow immediately
that would be great news!
This is a tremendous endorsement of Gordon Brown's position !!
ReplyDeleteIf he quit look for a lot of potential replacements taking a lot of thought about whether they want to stand & thus get the oprobrium of losing the election & or wait until after & hope to pick up the pieces.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Unsworth. Brown is lucky to escape the lynching which he may well have made inevitable for future politicians, as his very bloody chickens come home to roost in years to come, when he'll have his feet up by the fireside in some Highland croft.
ReplyDeleteWhat will Brown do next? Not writing, because 'his' books are unreadable. The speaking circuit is out, obviously, as is the IMF job. I suppose he could go and teach the history of the Scottish Labour Party in some obscure academic politicians' graveyard. (Oh, hi, Shirley.) Then again, who cares what the dangerous, deluded bastard does as long as he buggers off and wreaks no further damage on us, our children, our constitution, our liberties and our economy.
I'm with those who question the claim that Harold Macmillan hated being PM. If anything, the reverse. He appeared to enjoy regaling the 1922 Committee with his anecdotes. He was the showman in office. It helped occupy him in a life that knew, and continued to know, unhappiness. As has already been touched upon, he resigned believing that he was more gravely ill than was in fact the case and he came to regret having resigned.
ReplyDeleteCharles Clarke could initiate the downfall but I don't think he could win it.
ReplyDeleteSo who could?
Jack Straw - maybe John Major sort of candidate everyone likes him.
Ed Balls - not a chance too disliked; would love him to get it though Tory electoral gold.
David Milliband - I've a feeling he'll wait until the election is lost.
That leaves Squirrel Nutkin and Harman both are possibilites but with the bad smell currently hanging around Harman she's not viable.
Almost certainly would mean an election I think. Would rather see a Blairite than a Brownite as I think they'd do less damage to the country until the election.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteDepends what you mean by a GE being great news.
I agree good for the country.
But in the sort of target seats we have oop North we need longer to prepare the ground.
Good news is we're out and Labour isn't fighting back (trouble getting the troops out?) bad news is we need longer to get faces known, babies kissed and hands shook.
He has to go to the IMF!
ReplyDeleteAs to Harman, if Labour are smart, Hattie is voted in, crashes and burns big time at the elections then they remove her, so lancing that boil for all time.
After that, Balls will try (and will we get a first First Minister/Lady??? arrrrgggh), Johnson of course. Straw may well not. Cruddas will want in. I can see David Miliband finding out how disliked he is.
I think Milburn will make a shot for it. He is untarred by the entire Brown era.
If Brown is still in the job by summer's end then there is something terribly wrong with the country and something awfully rotten with the Labour Party.
ReplyDeleteIt's truly time for the incompetent PM to step down... or be removed by those he claims to lead.
This Government has something of the Fall of the Roman Empire about it, don't you think?
'This Government has something of the Fall of the Roman Empire about it, don't you think?'
ReplyDeleteNo, I actually liked that film!
I truly, and honestly beleive that Mr Gordon Brown should step down as PM. He looks ill, and washed out. He truly looks like 'Death Warmed Up'. I wholeheartedly beleive that Mr John Prescott should be brought back in as a Caretaker PM, with Jacqui Smith as Deputy until the next general election is over. John has great experience, and is a wonderful man who understands life. Mr Prescott should psh for a 4th term for New Labour to lead the country out of its current fiscal mess, which was caused by the Torys.
ReplyDeleteOnly slightly off topic, and a good idea. Kenyan women go on sex strike to force the dithering government to get its act together. They have clearly read Lysistrata. Equally clearly, the journalist hasn't.
ReplyDelete@ Erskine May: which edition are you?
ReplyDeleteMy great fear is the installation of a temporary leader such as Straw in the hope the Tory majority is slashed.
ReplyDeleteGiven the carnage of the Public finances this could see Labour back in play for the next election.
This shower of nomarks, opportunists, and believe in nothing drones are desperate enough to try anyone but Broon.
Anonymous 8.50:
ReplyDeleteThe latest.
@ Siberian Tory
ReplyDelete"we need longer to get faces known, babies kissed and hands shook."
As opposed to getting hands kissed and babies shaken, under this NuLab disaster, eh?
We can't have another unelected PM! If they ditch Brown they'll have to call an election.
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope. As inveterately dreadful as the Labour party is it would be impossible for them to choose a less competent leader than the indescribably useless Brown. A change in leader might save us having to suffer the inevitable gimmicky, wasteful, short sighted policies motivated at nothing more than putting the Tories briefly on the back foot which we are guaranteed until Brown leads Labour to oblivion at the next election.
ReplyDeleteMy prediction is that Brown will develop a "face saving" medical condition allowing him to step down from office on the grounds of ill-health.
ReplyDeleteHe can't be enjoying being a laughing stock.
Publishing his "comedy turn" You Tube clip on expenses was ridiculous. I can understand him trying to lighten his presentation style but surely his publicity machine should have reviewed it before publishing.
Even if he dislikes the job, does that mean he would quit? He may genuinely see it as his duty to stay as PM because he is the best person for the job. Remember, he is a Calvinist - do your duty, however horrible, at whatever sacrifice. The fact that he clearly isn't well suited to his post may not have occurred to him.
ReplyDeleteIn fact if he's disliking the job, it might make him more determined to hang on than if he just became disillusioned.
It's not an 'early departure', if it was an early departure he would have gone while he was still popular and the country was being run... rather than the mess it is now in.
ReplyDeleteIf he leaves now it's a 'late departure' as really he should have gone months ago!
If this is true then gordon must now believe his whole life was a waste of effort.
ReplyDeleteperhaps a suicide watch/exit gift voucher might be appropriate.